The 'Überchor' will feature 220 members from 15 groups at Symphony Hall on Saturday.

Germans who came to this country as immigrants beginning around 1850 brought with them, as all immigrant groups did, some customs that helped them remember the Old Country.

One of these was a musical one, and it went by various names — "Sängerbund," "Gesangverein," "Liederkranz" and similar names. These were groups of settlers who got together regularly to sing the songs of their heritage, and, one may suppose, drink beer and eat wurst.

Since the Northeast was heavily settled by Germans, the region featured many choruses, that as early as 1850 banded together as the "Nordöstlicher Sängerbund von Amerika." The association is still active, as are many local choirs.

This "Überchor" will assemble this weekend in Allentown, and on Saturday afternoon will give a concert at Symphony Hall, with 220 members from 15 choirs.

The program won't be simply a collection of drinking songs, but instead an assemblage from some of the best German composers, as well as those only with reputations back home. (Sorry, no Debussy.)

Pat and David Lightfoot of Sellersville are members of the Lehigh Saengerbund and made the local arrangements for the concert.

David says that the Nordöstlicher Sängerbund puts on one of these concerts every three years, the last one having been in Washington, D.C. "As far as I know," he says, "this event has never taken place in the Lehigh Valley before." He says the last gathering of a similar type of event was about 50 years ago.

Some of the groups can trace their history back to 1850. The Lehigh Valley's choir is almost as old, having been established in Allentown in 1858. It had about 40 members.

A look at the roster of those singing on Saturday reveals a preponderance of German names — Stumpf, Groeber, Wagner, Seitel — but there's an occasional O'Donnell, and even a Barotti.

David said German ethnicity is not a prerequisite for membership in the Lehigh group, nor is proficiency in the language, although he said he knows of at least one ensemble which requires that members be not more than two generations removed from someone born in Germany.

The concert will be supported by a 30-piece professional orchestra with the assistance of pianist Brian C. Gilmore.

The program includes selections by Mozart, Wagner, Brahms and Beethoven, as well as a plethora of works likely known only to the most ardent Germanophile.

Christine Warda, soprano, a member of the music faculty of Muhlenberg College and of the Lehigh Saengerbund "since birth" (according to the group's website), will sing several solos.

Conductors are Edward W. Milisits II, retired choral teacher from the Easton Area School District, and C. Nelson Fritts Jr., fine arts coordinator for the Cecil County (Md.) School District.

Beacon Hill Summer Concerts is a chamber music series with a rather broad focus. Witness the first concert, on Sunday afternoon: a barbershop quartet known as Vocal Spectrum.

Beacon Hill is a small venue in a woodsy, secluded area on Beacon Hill Road near Stroudsburg, just a few miles off Interstate 80.

Vocal Spectrum won the International Barbershop Quartet Competition in 2006 and two years before that was collegiate quartet champion. It will perform twice, at 4 and 7 p.m.

Its program has not yet been announced, but last year it presented such numbers as "Good Vibrations," "Bring Him Home" and "It Is Well with My Soul."

And if these two concerts sell out, you only have to book a Norwegian Cruise Lines Alaska cruise July 8-15 to hear the group. Vocal Spectrum is the featured entertainment.

The rest of Beacon Hill's season includes New York Polypyhony, a four male chorus in a more traditional classical program on June 9; Tapestry, a five-member female chorus, on July 7; the Chiara String Quartet, a regular at Beacon Hill, on July 15; a voice program by soprano Elise Quagliata with music from Debussy to Cole Porter on Aug. 4, and on Aug. 11, Tenet, a vocal quartet with lute which perform works from Monteverdi to spirituals.